#yiv0636757869 p{ margin:10px 0;padding:0;} #yiv0636757869 table{ border-collapse:collapse;} #yiv0636757869 h1, #yiv0636757869 h2, #yiv0636757869 h3, #yiv0636757869 h4, #yiv0636757869 h5, #yiv0636757869 h6{ display:block;margin:0;padding:0;} #yiv0636757869 img, #yiv0636757869 a img{ border:0;height:auto;outline:none;text-decoration:none;} #yiv0636757869 body, #yiv0636757869 #yiv0636757869bodyTable, #yiv0636757869 #yiv0636757869bodyCell{ min-height:100%;margin:0;padding:0;width:100%;} #yiv0636757869 .yiv0636757869mcnPreviewText{ display:none !important;} #yiv0636757869 #yiv0636757869outlook a{ padding:0;} #yiv0636757869 img{ } #yiv0636757869 table{ } #yiv0636757869 .yiv0636757869ReadMsgBody{ width:100%;} #yiv0636757869 .yiv0636757869ExternalClass{ width:100%;} #yiv0636757869 p, #yiv0636757869 a, #yiv0636757869 li, #yiv0636757869 td, #yiv0636757869 blockquote{ } #yiv0636757869 a .filtered99999 , #yiv0636757869 a .filtered99999 { color:inherit;cursor:default;text-decoration:none;} #yiv0636757869 p, #yiv0636757869 a, #yiv0636757869 li, #yiv0636757869 td, #yiv0636757869 body, #yiv0636757869 table, #yiv0636757869 blockquote{ } #yiv0636757869 .yiv0636757869ExternalClass, #yiv0636757869 .yiv0636757869ExternalClass p, #yiv0636757869 .yiv0636757869ExternalClass td, #yiv0636757869 .yiv0636757869ExternalClass div, #yiv0636757869 .yiv0636757869ExternalClass span, #yiv0636757869 .yiv0636757869ExternalClass font{ line-height:100%;} #yiv0636757869 a .filtered99999 { color:inherit !important;text-decoration:none !important;font-size:inherit !important;font-family:inherit !important;font-weight:inherit !important;line-height:inherit !important;} #yiv0636757869 #yiv0636757869bodyCell{ padding:10px;} #yiv0636757869 .yiv0636757869templateContainer{ max-width:600px !important;border:5px solid #363232;} #yiv0636757869 a.yiv0636757869mcnButton{ display:block;} #yiv0636757869 .yiv0636757869mcnImage, #yiv0636757869 .yiv0636757869mcnRetinaImage{ vertical-align:bottom;} #yiv0636757869 .yiv0636757869mcnTextContent{ } #yiv0636757869 .yiv0636757869mcnTextContent img{ height:auto !important;} #yiv0636757869 .yiv0636757869mcnDividerBlock{ !important;} #yiv0636757869 body, #yiv0636757869 #yiv0636757869bodyTable{ } #yiv0636757869 #yiv0636757869bodyCell{ border-top:0;} #yiv0636757869 .yiv0636757869templateContainer{ border:5px solid #363232;} #yiv0636757869 h1{ color:#202020;font-family:Helvetica;font-size:26px;font-style:normal;font-weight:bold;line-height:125%;letter-spacing:normal;text-align:left;} #yiv0636757869 h2{ color:#202020;font-family:Helvetica;font-size:22px;font-style:normal;font-weight:bold;line-height:125%;letter-spacing:normal;text-align:left;} #yiv0636757869 h3{ color:#202020;font-family:Helvetica;font-size:20px;font-style:normal;font-weight:bold;line-height:125%;letter-spacing:normal;text-align:left;} #yiv0636757869 h4{ color:#202020;font-family:Helvetica;font-size:18px;font-style:normal;font-weight:bold;line-height:125%;letter-spacing:normal;text-align:left;} #yiv0636757869 #yiv0636757869templatePreheader{ background-color:#FAFAFA;background-image:none;background-repeat:no-repeat;background-position:center;background-size:cover;border-top:0;border-bottom:0;padding-top:9px;padding-bottom:9px;} #yiv0636757869 #yiv0636757869templatePreheader .yiv0636757869mcnTextContent, #yiv0636757869 #yiv0636757869templatePreheader .yiv0636757869mcnTextContent p{ color:#656565;font-family:Helvetica;font-size:12px;line-height:150%;text-align:left;} #yiv0636757869 #yiv0636757869templatePreheader .yiv0636757869mcnTextContent a, #yiv0636757869 #yiv0636757869templatePreheader .yiv0636757869mcnTextContent p a{ color:#656565;font-weight:normal;text-decoration:underline;} #yiv0636757869 #yiv0636757869templateHeader{ background-color:#FFFFFF;background-image:none;background-repeat:no-repeat;background-position:center;background-size:cover;border-top:0;border-bottom:0;padding-top:9px;padding-bottom:0;} #yiv0636757869 #yiv0636757869templateHeader .yiv0636757869mcnTextContent, #yiv0636757869 #yiv0636757869templateHeader .yiv0636757869mcnTextContent p{ color:#202020;font-family:Helvetica;font-size:16px;line-height:150%;text-align:left;} #yiv0636757869 #yiv0636757869templateHeader .yiv0636757869mcnTextContent a, #yiv0636757869 #yiv0636757869templateHeader .yiv0636757869mcnTextContent p a{ color:#007C89;font-weight:normal;text-decoration:underline;} #yiv0636757869 #yiv0636757869templateBody{ background-color:#FFFFFF;background-image:none;background-repeat:no-repeat;background-position:center;background-size:cover;border-top:0;border-bottom:2px solid #EAEAEA;padding-top:0;padding-bottom:9px;} #yiv0636757869 #yiv0636757869templateBody .yiv0636757869mcnTextContent, #yiv0636757869 #yiv0636757869templateBody .yiv0636757869mcnTextContent p{ color:#202020;font-family:Helvetica;font-size:16px;line-height:150%;text-align:left;} #yiv0636757869 #yiv0636757869templateBody .yiv0636757869mcnTextContent a, #yiv0636757869 #yiv0636757869templateBody .yiv0636757869mcnTextContent p a{ color:#007C89;font-weight:normal;text-decoration:underline;} #yiv0636757869 #yiv0636757869templateFooter{ background-color:#FAFAFA;background-image:none;background-repeat:no-repeat;background-position:center;background-size:cover;border-top:0;border-bottom:0;padding-top:9px;padding-bottom:9px;} #yiv0636757869 #yiv0636757869templateFooter .yiv0636757869mcnTextContent, #yiv0636757869 #yiv0636757869templateFooter .yiv0636757869mcnTextContent p{ color:#656565;font-family:Helvetica;font-size:12px;line-height:150%;text-align:center;} #yiv0636757869 #yiv0636757869templateFooter .yiv0636757869mcnTextContent a, #yiv0636757869 #yiv0636757869templateFooter .yiv0636757869mcnTextContent p a{ color:#656565;font-weight:normal;text-decoration:underline;} @media only screen and (min-width:768px){ #yiv0636757869 .yiv0636757869templateContainer{ width:600px !important;} }@media only screen and (max-width:480px){ #yiv0636757869 body, #yiv0636757869 table, #yiv0636757869 td, #yiv0636757869 p, #yiv0636757869 a, #yiv0636757869 li, #yiv0636757869 blockquote{ } }@media only screen and (max-width:480px){ #yiv0636757869 body{ width:100% !important;min-width:100% !important;} }@media only screen and (max-width:480px){ #yiv0636757869 #yiv0636757869bodyCell{ padding-top:10px !important;} }@media only screen and (max-width:480px){ #yiv0636757869 .yiv0636757869mcnRetinaImage{ max-width:100% !important;} }@media only screen and (max-width:480px){ #yiv0636757869 .yiv0636757869mcnImage{ width:100% !important;} }@media only screen and (max-width:480px){ #yiv0636757869 .yiv0636757869mcnCartContainer, #yiv0636757869 .yiv0636757869mcnCaptionTopContent, #yiv0636757869 .yiv0636757869mcnRecContentContainer, #yiv0636757869 .yiv0636757869mcnCaptionBottomContent, #yiv0636757869 .yiv0636757869mcnTextContentContainer, #yiv0636757869 .yiv0636757869mcnBoxedTextContentContainer, #yiv0636757869 .yiv0636757869mcnImageGroupContentContainer, #yiv0636757869 .yiv0636757869mcnCaptionLeftTextContentContainer, #yiv0636757869 .yiv0636757869mcnCaptionRightTextContentContainer, #yiv0636757869 .yiv0636757869mcnCaptionLeftImageContentContainer, #yiv0636757869 .yiv0636757869mcnCaptionRightImageContentContainer, #yiv0636757869 .yiv0636757869mcnImageCardLeftTextContentContainer, #yiv0636757869 .yiv0636757869mcnImageCardRightTextContentContainer, #yiv0636757869 .yiv0636757869mcnImageCardLeftImageContentContainer, #yiv0636757869 .yiv0636757869mcnImageCardRightImageContentContainer{ max-width:100% !important;width:100% !important;} }@media only screen and (max-width:480px){ #yiv0636757869 .yiv0636757869mcnBoxedTextContentContainer{ min-width:100% !important;} }@media only screen and (max-width:480px){ #yiv0636757869 .yiv0636757869mcnImageGroupContent{ padding:9px !important;} }@media only screen and (max-width:480px){ #yiv0636757869 .yiv0636757869mcnCaptionLeftContentOuter .yiv0636757869mcnTextContent, #yiv0636757869 .yiv0636757869mcnCaptionRightContentOuter .yiv0636757869mcnTextContent{ padding-top:9px !important;} }@media only screen and (max-width:480px){ #yiv0636757869 .yiv0636757869mcnImageCardTopImageContent, #yiv0636757869 .yiv0636757869mcnCaptionBottomContent:last-child .yiv0636757869mcnCaptionBottomImageContent, #yiv0636757869 .yiv0636757869mcnCaptionBlockInner .yiv0636757869mcnCaptionTopContent:last-child .yiv0636757869mcnTextContent{ padding-top:18px !important;} }@media only screen and (max-width:480px){ #yiv0636757869 .yiv0636757869mcnImageCardBottomImageContent{ padding-bottom:9px !important;} }@media only screen and (max-width:480px){ #yiv0636757869 .yiv0636757869mcnImageGroupBlockInner{ padding-top:0 !important;padding-bottom:0 !important;} }@media only screen and (max-width:480px){ #yiv0636757869 .yiv0636757869mcnImageGroupBlockOuter{ padding-top:9px !important;padding-bottom:9px !important;} }@media only screen and (max-width:480px){ #yiv0636757869 .yiv0636757869mcnTextContent, #yiv0636757869 .yiv0636757869mcnBoxedTextContentColumn{ padding-right:18px !important;padding-left:18px !important;} }@media only screen and (max-width:480px){ #yiv0636757869 .yiv0636757869mcnImageCardLeftImageContent, #yiv0636757869 .yiv0636757869mcnImageCardRightImageContent{ padding-right:18px !important;padding-bottom:0 !important;padding-left:18px !important;} }@media only screen and (max-width:480px){ #yiv0636757869 .yiv0636757869mcpreview-image-uploader{ display:none !important;width:100% !important;} }@media only screen and (max-width:480px){ #yiv0636757869 h1{ font-size:22px !important;line-height:125% !important;} }@media only screen and (max-width:480px){ #yiv0636757869 h2{ font-size:20px !important;line-height:125% !important;} }@media only screen and (max-width:480px){ #yiv0636757869 h3{ font-size:18px !important;line-height:125% !important;} }@media only screen and (max-width:480px){ #yiv0636757869 h4{ font-size:16px !important;line-height:150% !important;} }@media only screen and (max-width:480px){ #yiv0636757869 .yiv0636757869mcnBoxedTextContentContainer .yiv0636757869mcnTextContent, #yiv0636757869 .yiv0636757869mcnBoxedTextContentContainer .yiv0636757869mcnTextContent p{ font-size:14px !important;line-height:150% !important;} }@media only screen and (max-width:480px){ #yiv0636757869 #yiv0636757869templatePreheader{ display:block !important;} }@media only screen and (max-width:480px){ #yiv0636757869 #yiv0636757869templatePreheader .yiv0636757869mcnTextContent, #yiv0636757869 #yiv0636757869templatePreheader .yiv0636757869mcnTextContent p{ font-size:12px !important;line-height:150% !important;} }@media only screen and (max-width:480px){ #yiv0636757869 #yiv0636757869templateHeader .yiv0636757869mcnTextContent, #yiv0636757869 #yiv0636757869templateHeader .yiv0636757869mcnTextContent p{ font-size:16px !important;line-height:150% !important;} }@media only screen and (max-width:480px){ #yiv0636757869 #yiv0636757869templateBody .yiv0636757869mcnTextContent, #yiv0636757869 #yiv0636757869templateBody .yiv0636757869mcnTextContent p{ font-size:14px !important;line-height:150% !important;} }@media only screen and (max-width:480px){ #yiv0636757869 #yiv0636757869templateFooter .yiv0636757869mcnTextContent, #yiv0636757869 #yiv0636757869templateFooter .yiv0636757869mcnTextContent p{ font-size:12px !important;line-height:150% !important;} } | | | | View this email in your browser | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Let It Fall: Collapse and Ecological Metanoia | | | | | | | | | | Essay by Rev. Matthew Syrdal May 28, 2020 I completely scrapped what I was going to write, when the Muse asked me this morning, What do you really want to say? Let it fall! I can feel the energy of that cry rise up from my solar-plexus into my throat. It is not anger in the ordinary sense, but something shaped by grief into something more akin to desire — even joy. This sort of joy harmonizes across time and species boundaries in the rising of the destructive and creative powers alive and at work in the world in our time of institutional collapse. Like the heavenly throne room in the book of Revelation, with the four living animal-human divinities and the twenty-four elders fallen in prostration, it is like the feeling of laying down on warm, red stone, ear pressed to canyon floor to hear a faint and strange primordial song thrumming up from the dawn of deep time through the layers of memory: Holy, holy, holy! This cry is a call to wild prophetesses and warrior-priests, Earth mystics, shamans and lovers in the deep imagination who dance each night in the moonlight while we dream. In an age of institutional collapse, it is a clarity of desire — a lit flame in our hearts. I think of Jesus’ words, “I am here to start a fire, and how I am in pain until it is kindled!” A deep longing, a groaning with and from the creation itself. This isn’t a callous disregard of the suffering of so many who have lost loved ones or livelihood. I too grieve the manifold disasters affecting the most vulnerable in our time. I worry about the future of my own children and the future generations. There is a healthy anger mingled with this desire now. Anger at my own complicity and the church’s complicity in a system that is designed to suppress our connection with these deepest energies in the soul and Earth, as we turn a blind eye to the ravishing of ecosystems and poisoning of the soils and biosphere. For us faith leaders the problem is much deeper than simply ‘green-washing’ Christianity. Our habits of inattention and self-survival stand trial. The “cultural self” has become really good at shutting off the valve to feeling, that organ of perception connecting our own hearts with the heartbeat of a living World. I am angry knowing that over the next months and years, commercials and pundits will continue to preach their sermons, businesses and churches will obediently return to ‘normal’, massive collective forces will induce us back to the sleep of forgetfulness and numbness — quickening our return to the slow boil madness we have all grown accustomed to. But what if we allow ourselves to be fully present to the collapse all around us? What if, through attention and intention, we learn again to deeply feel? What if we welcome the grief, and the anger, and the joy and let it overcome us? Theodore Roethke writes In A Dark Time, “In a dark time, the eye begins to see / I meet my shadow in the deepening shade / I hear my echo in the echoing wood… What’s madness but nobility of soul / At odds with circumstance? The day’s on fire!” In this strange and persistent liminality “the eye begins to see.” Our eyes—as Christians in particular—have not been trained to see in the dark, but the dark is where we learn how to really see. Something big has stepped on the anthill of our anthropocentrism and hubris as a species. If we let our eyes begin to adjust, a new found curiosity might usher a peek behind the screen of our apocalyptic fantasy, the very nature of the dynamics — the fine line between madness and nobility of soul — as we arrive together at this great hour of circumstance. Perhaps we are being invited to awaken from the semi-trance state of Western consumer culture, as once self-assured faith leaders, thought-leaders and politicians we find ourselves sitting on what T.S. Eliot called a ‘heap of broken images,’ heads in our hands. Collapse is necessary to rewire on a deeper level of consciousness. This is true in human development and in cosmic processes. Thomas Berry speaks of entropy and the self-immolation of stars in supernova explosions as the way the universe ‘sacrifices’ on one level of being in order to activate more advanced modes of being, birthing a more glorious reality. There is consistency of action of the divine in the spiritual-material universe much vaster than our often narrow understanding of sacrifice and redemption. The cross in this sense too must move from an article of faith to the archetype of emergent experience. In a time of collapse, sacrifice is an invitation to trust. Trust moves us outward into greater circles of belonging. Trust enlarges our sense of self. Through trust we begin to accept — and feel — our primary belonging to Earth. Trust relativizes our need to make everything about us and opens the field of possibility and creativity. We at Seminary of the Wild recently had the unique opportunity to listen and learn from Buddhist scholar, deep ecology activist, and Earth elder Joanna Macy (who had recently turned ninety-one years old). She mused on the topic “The Power of Our Belonging,” in this liminal moment. With a bright and inquisitive innocence in her eyes, and deep, searching wisdom etched in her face, Joanna shared the heartbeat of her own deep work reflecting back over the course of her long life. One of her great gifts to generations of ecological activists and spiritual seekers has been to help others shift their experience and primary image of the World and Self. Joanna has deftly and insightfully addressed the nature of these four weltanschauungs (world-views): the World as Battlefield, the World as Entrapment, the World as Lover, and the World as Self. Significantly, these images have co-arisen in the context of her own journey of awakening during the course of her ninety-one years. Over the last few months I have noticed a deeper sense of trust emerge in my life, a trust that is grounded in the World itself — the Spirit-animated creation — the sacred pattern and intention of Life. As we gathered that evening with Joanna as a semi-diverse community of eighty-five pastors, church members, scholars, buddhists, activists, nature-based guides, seekers, lovers, from many different cultural and spiritual backgrounds, I was touched by a deep sense of emotion, even rapture. A new age lies incipient and dormant in this age — currently in the midst of collapse. The new possibilities, energies and images we need as a species are already being activated, they are emerging in the unconscious, appearing in dreams, becoming embodied in those who are responding as ecological activists, wild prophets, Earth mystics and magicians to the summons — an expression and embodiment of that primal Wholeness — to the wild and cosmic Christ-in-the-World. Even now, new paths are being forged to reclaim the wild roots of the Christian story, as the old story held high by Empire, patriarchy, and anthropocentrism collapses. In the mystical traditions we have been taught the way of ascent which is through mediation and other contemplative practices — disidentification with the material world in its more primal energies. The truth is, it is not disidentification from the world that is needed (which results in a type of collective dissociation from Earth) but disidentification with the small or false self, which serves to protect us from experiencing our deeper nature because it is threatening to the family system, church or culture. Rather than rising above the suffering in the world, we are called, like Jesus, to descend more deeply into the suffering of creation. Rather than escape into detachment, to feel the heartbreak, the devastation and collapse. Our invitation deeper into the present and dangerous opportunity before us cries: Fall! Fall madly and deeply in love with the wild, living, sentient, and fiercely beautiful World. Know the World as Lover. Know the World as your deepest, ecological Self. This way of feeling and deep romance was not foreign to our spiritual and religious ancestors. From the bridal mysticism inspiring the erotic poetry of the Song of Songs, to Theresa Liseux and the viriditas “greening energy” of Earth healer Hildegard of Bingen, we must move as Christians from the view of World as Battlefield or Trap to World as Lover and ultimately Self. Feeling is the only way in. This is what Brian Stafford, co-founder of Seminary of the Wild, calls "ecological metanoia." What’s madness but nobility of soul At odds with circumstance? The day’s on fire! I know the purity of pure despair, My shadow pinned against a sweating wall. That place among the rocks — is it a cave, Or winding path? The edge is what I have… (From Theodore Roethke, In A Dark Time) ~ Rev. Matthew Syrdal Read online here About the Author Rev. Matthew Syrdal M.Div., lives in the front range of Colorado with his beautiful family. Matt is an ordained pastor in the Presbyterian church (USA), founder and lead guide of WilderSoul and Church of Lost Walls and co-founder of Seminary of the Wild. Matt speaks at conferences and guides immersive nature-based experiences around the country. In his years of studying ancient Christian Rites of Initiation, world religions, anthropology, rites-of-passage and eco- psychology Matt seeks to re-wild what it means to be human. His work weaves in myth and ceremony in nature as a way for people to enter into conversation with the storied world in which they are a part. Matt’s passion is guiding others in the discovery of “treasure hidden in the field” of their deepest lives cultivating deep wholeness and re-enchantment of the natural world to apprentice fully and dangerously to the kingdom of god. Matt has been coaching, and guiding since becoming a certified Wild Mind nature-based human development guide through the Animas Valley Institute and is currently training to become a soul initiation guide through the SAIP program. | | | | | | | | Question & Answer Q: By Dean I have never been as disappointed in the church as I am today. The church should and must be open to the public. For the Church not to see itself as an essential service shows the viewpoint the church has of themselves within their community. And if they do not see itself as an essential service then how do they expect the community to see them? Is it not the Church’s job to look beyond propaganda? To be the voice of truth, not the voice of the government? A: By Rev. Dr. Velda R. Love Dear Dean, In order to respond to your question, I had questions of my own. I wondered if you belonged to a particular denomination, or if you’re a practicing believer with a particular church affiliation. I’m not privy to this information, therefore I will do my best to provide a thoughtful response. The church is not now nor has ever been monolithic in its mission, vision, doctrines, and missional intent. As an educator, I wonder if you’re disappointed because the Christian Church has been influenced by Western ideology and Eurocentric beliefs in supremacy and not justice for all of its citizens. I grew up in the Black church with an emphasis on Black Power and liberation and Womanist theology. The members were the church. We gathered in a building that represented a sacred space of worship and fellowship. Our affiliation was with a particular denomination, but there was autonomy to shape and plan our worship and communal experiences based on our demographics, social location, and ethnic and cultural identity. We are the church after church, which means we represent the body of Christ in our homes, and with our neighbors. We are the embodiment of the living God in our communities, at work, and while in school. We are the church everywhere our physical bodies are present. We are the church! We serve each other in order to serve the world around us. Our alignment is with God. Our faith is rooted in the teachings of Jesus Christ. And, we support our communities and each other because of the power and presence of the Holy Spirit. We remain unashamedly black, and unapologetically Christian. Our theological and biblical commitments are to the radial teachings of a Palestinian Jew born in proximity to Northeast Africa. This is how the community sees itself in relationship to the Christian Church. It is to be an essential member of one’s faith community seeking truth and liberation for all God’s people. In closing, our faith community does not adhere to Eurocentrism and nationalism. We are not bound by myths of white skin supremacy and rugged individualism. We are people of deep faith with a sacred obligation to care for our all of our neighbors. The Spirit of the Lord is Upon Us! “The Spirit of the Lord is upon us, because God has anointed us to bring good news to the poor. God sends us to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” Luke 4: 18-19 The challenge for all of us is to read the Bible from the margins, listen to the narratives of the oppressed, and return to a reading that is subversive and anti-imperial for the sake of a liberating gospel. ~ Rev. Dr. Velda R. Love Read and share online here About the Author Rev. Dr. Velda R. Love currently serves as Minister for Racial Justice in The Justice and Witness Ministries of The United Church of Christ. Velda has a working knowledge of critical race theory and creates comprehensive and strategic approaches for UCC national conferences, congregations, and staff colleagues to explore and understand the intersection of racial justice with other justice issues. Velda brings an African-centered approach inclusive of biblical and theological knowledge in liberation and womanist perspectives | | | | | | | | Please continue to send us your feedback… we are listening. We aim to give voice to many different perspectives that are relevant and inspiring along this spiritually progressing path. We are not here to tell you what to believe or how to act. We are here to support your journey, to share and learn together.Thank you for being a part of this community! | | | | | | Join our FB community today! Spread the word, share with friends. Thanks! | | | | | | | | | | | “Get your Children’s Curriculum for the Summer or Fall now at a fantastic discount! (Yes, A Joyful Path can be taught online!)” ProgressiveChristianity.org's A Joyful Path Children's Curriculum for ages 6 - 10 has been praised as behavior-over-belief curriculum that connects children with their own inner wisdom. It teaches interdependence, self awareness, respect for nature, stillness, forgiveness, prayer, meditation, and integrity. Using the Bible and other wisdom stories, A Joyful Path helps children learn how to follow the path of Jesus in today’s world. Order before June 1st and receive 25% off and a free Music CD. READ ON ... | | | | | | | | | Bishop John Shelby Spong Revisited The Study of Life, Part 1: A Journey Into the Mystery of Life Begins in the Amazon Rain Forest Essay by Bishop John Shelby Spong July 30, 2009 In that mysterious and wonderful lull that comes in an author’s life between completing the writing and editing of a book and waiting for its publication, my wife and I, with one daughter and two granddaughters accompanying us, set off on a trek in search of the meaning of life and its origins. Following in the steps of Charles Robert Darwin, we sought to relive his experiences in the Galapagos Islands, located in the Pacific Ocean some 600 miles off the shore of Ecuador. It seemed a particularly appropriate thing to do in 2009, the 200th anniversary of Darwin’s birth and the 150th anniversary of the publication of The Origin of Species. To prepare ourselves for the insights of Darwin, we began the trip in Quito, exploring the magnificent and stark terrain of the Andes Mountains. Geologists tell us that North and South America were once part of the land mass that is today Europe, Asia and Africa. A cursory look at any map of the world will reveal how closely they fit. Even the continent that we call Australia was once tucked underneath the Asian sub-continent. Colliding tectonic plates and volcanoes along the fault lines separated that single land mass millions of years ago and these forces also pushed great quantities of what was once the bottom of the sea high into the atmosphere to create such mountain ranges as the Himalayas, the Rockies and the Andes. Then by air and bus we made our way to the city of Coca, which is east-southeast of Quito and the place where Ecuador’s budding oil business is now located. There public transportation ended! We then boarded a motorized canoe, and for two-plus hours rode some 70 kilometers down the Napo River, Ecuador’s largest waterway and a major tributary of the Amazon. The Napo is huge, in some places wider than eight football fields placed end to end, and it was flowing at a rapid clip just prior to emptying into the Amazon. Next we traveled by dugout canoe into the rain forest where, under the guidance of local ecological experts, we hiked and explored the variety of life forms that thrive in this incredible setting. This trip was directly related to the launch of my new book. That book’s purpose was to examine the possibility of life after death, a study that has engaged me in general for over twenty years and with great intensity for the last three. My study had convinced me that the way most religious people approach the subject of life after death is all wrong. The emphasis cannot and should not be on that hypothetical place that we postulate will come after we die. That approach is nothing more than a dead end, primarily because there are no data that can be observed, cited or studied. No one is available who has ever been there and returned who might be interviewed. No one can go to this hypothetical place either to observe it or study it. Every thing we human beings have ever said about life after death can be nothing more than speculative. In the great age of faith, which we now think of as “the childhood of our humanity,” such speculation was considered valid and even learned. People in that time of history would debate endlessly on what the afterlife was like. Ecclesiastical leaders would even subdivide this speculative realm into various regions, which they presumed to describe meticulously and in many volumes. There was of course hell, with its punishing fires, and heaven, with its golden streets and lamp stands, its diet of milk and honey and its promise of eternal rest. Next purgatory was added, located, according to these learned folks, near hell but not actually being part of it. This was quite economical, for it allowed the fires that were designed to punish eternally also to be used merely to purge those who received a time limited sentence before being welcomed into eternal life. It was, if you will, a “central heating system” in the afterlife. Then later another region was added, called limbo, that was reserved for unbaptized children and noble pagans who, undoubtedly to the Church fathers, stood outside the only sure saving faith tradition but who were clearly not deserving of being ultimately condemned by God. These ideas were reinforced by a host of “authorities.” Dante wrote his “Divine Comedy” to frame these images and later John Milton wrote his “Paradise Lost” and “Paradise Regained” to give vivid contrast to these ecclesiastical concepts. Life beyond this life was clearly assumed to be describable. These leaders, however, knew no more than we know today about this subject, which is absolutely nothing. So it was that when the age of faith, which had invested these images with authenticity, began to decline under the intellectual assault of such fathers of modernity as Copernicus, Galileo, Isaac Newton and Charles Darwin, these images began their inevitable decline, first into being ignored, then into being significantly doubted and finally into being generally abandoned. In this manner, the human conviction about the reality of life after death simply faded from view. Yes, I know that polls continue to show that a great majority of America’s citizens still believe in heaven and a few less believe in hell. Polls, however, are so misleading. A closer analysis reveals that most people, unable to face the starkness of life’s ever-looming mortality, are far better described as people who “believe in believing” in life after death rather than those who actually believe in it. Thousands of signs in contemporary life point to this truth. In order to write in a serious way on this subject, therefore, one discovers quickly the inability to counter this dying conviction by artificially resuscitating the corpse of yesterday’s belief system. A new starting point must be found. As I developed the book that new starting point became quite clear. No belief in life after death will make any sense until life itself is understood. This was how life before death became my doorway into the subject of life after death. This trip was thus designed for me to study life in all its forms. I wanted to explore life’s origins, its interdependence, its characteristics and ultimately its meaning. The only doorway into understanding life after death for me had to be the study of life itself. We headed, therefore, for the Galapagos with an introductory side trip through the as yet unspoiled rain forest of the Amazon River in South America. We were not disappointed! For three days by canoe in the waterways and by hikes through the forest itself, we encountered the mystery of life in a thousand different ways. We found the forest filled with various forms of vegetation, but every single one of them was involved in a struggle to survive. We looked at the adaptations that many plants had made to allow them to shed excess water in the rain forest. We noted the larger leaves of the lower plants and the smaller leaves in the taller trees, each designed to capture the correct amount of life-giving sunshine. We found palm trees that sent out new roots from several feet up their trunks that were designed to move the palm tree more fully into the sun. We looked at plants that grew leaves out of only one side of the branch and spiraling upward so that the leaves on the higher circle did not cut off the sun from the leaves on the lower circle. We looked at something the native people called the “wooden vine” that sought out the shade because it seemed to know that shade meant the presence of tall trees and its best chance for survival was to climb the tallest tree to bask in the life-giving rays of the sun. It was as if the law of life itself was for each species of plants to survive for as long as possible. Survival appears to be the dominant motif of every living thing. There is no consciousness, no ability to make life decisions in a plant, so we have to conclude that the drive to survive, expressed in the incredible ability to adapt in order to live, appears to be written into the very DNA of all living matter. A second thing also became obvious in the Amazon Rain Forest. The whole ecosystem of the rain forest, and indeed of all of the deeply interrelated forms of life on the planet Earth, seems to be part of a constant system of the renewal of life. Periodically a great tree in the forest will topple and fall. Perhaps it has been struck by lightning or the effect of constant rain has so loosened its roots that it is susceptible to the power of the wind. When it falls, however, it creates a crisis for all nearby living things. The vegetation that had prospered in and adapted to the shade that that tree provided was now subjected to direct sunlight for which it was not prepared and so it dies. Then vegetation known as “pioneer plants” like ferns move in and prosper in the daylight. Next taller plants move in and the ferns die, placing nutrients back in the soil. Then taller plants move in and in time they are dwarfed by even larger plants. Each in turn dies, enriching the soil until it is ready once more to support the giant trees and the life of the forest is restored. Perhaps it takes a hundred years, but the forest displays powerful restorative activity. Living things like mushrooms and insects facilitate the decaying process as the life cycle of the forest is renewed again and again. The balance of nature is seen in both individual plants and in the ecosystem as a whole. The balance in favor of life is observable, definable and real. None of this is conscious. Plants do not make rational decisions. Palm trees do not consciously decide to grow a new root that will give the tree a better relationship with the sun. All of these things and millions more occur because survival, individually and ecosystemically, is a driving force in nature itself. In the vegetative flora and fauna in the Amazon Rain Forest, and presumably replicated all over the earth, the drive to survive is a fact demonstrably present in the unconscious life of inanimate living things. We thus had succeeded in identifying one facet of what appears to be true about all life: It is programmed to survive. Will we see this same survival instinct as we move up the ladder of consciousness to insects, birds, fish and all the animate creatures of the world? What happens to this drive to survive when it enters a self-conscious human life? Those questions will be my focus next week as this study of life continues. ~ John Shelby Spong | | | | | | | | Announcements | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |